


Babysitters

by DestinyLeane



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 12:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21208811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyLeane/pseuds/DestinyLeane
Summary: Steven and Spinel babysit Steven's baby cousin for a day.





	Babysitters

Steven and Spinel sat on the couch, watching a rerun of Crying Breakfast Friends while the two waited for Pearl, Garnet and Amethys to return, they both glanced at the doorway, expecting to see them enter, but instead of the gems it was Steven's Dad. 

"Hey Stewball," he said pushing the door open with his elbow, he held something in his arms, that greatly intrigued the two of them.   
A baby. Steven immediately jumped up and darted to his Dad, eagerly looking at the maybe one year old infant. His eyes gleamed at the sight and he cooed at the baby that stared back at him with equal wonder. 

"Who's this?!" He grinned, waving Spinel over to see them. The pink gem meandered over, confused by Steven's reaction, she didn't know humans could be so tiny. And fat. 

"What is it?" She asked, staring at the baby, the little boy met eyes with her and smiled. It made her feel something. Very strange. She blushed slightly and smiled back. 

"It's a baby! Whose baby is it?" Steven asked as his father sat down on the couch. And sighed, "it's you're uncle's he asked me to babysit for him, I tried to explain that Saddie Killer and the Suspects are have a show tonight. Can you watch him for the day?" 

Steven nodded excitedly, already taking a liking to the infant and played with his dad's hair. "Yeah! Of course!" 

"You sure Steven? You can't go on missions with the gems, are they even here?" Greg remarked, unsure if his son was ready to take care of a baby. If he was anything like his mother, the baby could end up in danger at some point.

"Yeah! It'll be fine, and Spinel is here, everyone else is doing stuff at little homeworld." Steven answered, reaching for the baby and lightly patting his head, "what's his name?" 

"Dexter, just call if you need anything." Greg pulled off a large diaper bag from his shoulder and opened it up, "make sure he gets fed and goes to bed by 8 PM. I'll check in throughout the night to make sure everything is going okay." 

Steven was more than eager to take the baby, bouncing him up and down in his arms and unable to stop smiling, Spinel couldn't make sense of his sudden attachment to the tiny, pudgy human. Instead she simply watched him rock the baby side to side ooing and awing at it with exaggerated faces.

"Well, I gotta meet the band at the warehouse, please call if anything happens, Steven?" 

Steven nodded, too distracted by his new little friend to listen to his dad, and waived him away still bouncing with the baby. 

Spinel sat back down on the couch, intently staring at the infant, she couldn't understand what had possessed Steven to suddenly adore the thing so much, and she was enjoying their time together. Now this miniature human was taking that silent attention away from her.

"You wanna hold him?" Steven asked, pulling the pink gem from her thoughts. She looked up, Steven was standing in front of her, and Dexter was staring at her just as intently as she was him.   
She made a face, that was somewhere between confusion and embarrassment, she didn't know how to take care of a tiny human. What if they had bones too? She could break it. 

"Come on? I think he likes you." Steven insisted, holding out the child for her to take. Dexter reached out, closing and opening his fists as though he wanted to grab her.   
Spinel hesitantly grabbed the child and set him down in her lap. He was warm, and soft, and he indeed had bones. 

The baby reached up and touched her cheek, his tiny nails lightly scratching where her tear stains trailed down. Then he smiled, and then he laughed. It was the most adorable and precious and innocent laugh Spinel had ever heard in her life. 

And suddenly all ill will and reservations she had toward the baby were replaced with an inescapable urge to protect that smile, and that laugh.   
Spinel's eyes softened and she pulled the baby closer, letting him touch her face and eyes, that is, until he found his way to her hair.   
He grabbed it and yanked, harder than she expected, but the knots and dizziness didn't help either. 

"Ow!" She yelped, tugging him lightly away, still smiling despite the tears in her eyes from the sudden pain.  
Steven held his hands out to take him from her and Spinel pulled him back, unwilling to let the infant go just yet.   
She wanted to keep it smiling, and laughing and happy, it was so small and weak and sweet and innocent. What did she feel about it? 

"See? I told you he liked you, but we should probably feed him." Steven said, Spinel pulled eye gaze from the baby's shining eyes, watching Steven pull out a bottle of milk. He stood up and moved toward the kitchen pulling out a pot and filling it with water.   
Spinel stood up also, wrapping her arm around the baby and holding him gently to her chest as she walked toward Steven to see what exactly he was doing. 

"You gotta heat up the water just right, then put the bottle in so it heats up too. That way he drinks all of it." Steven explained, pulling the bottle out before it got too hot and gesturing for Spinel to hand him the baby. She reluctantly obliged.

"Then you just feed him. See?" Steven held the bottle up to Dexter's lips and he immediately grabbed it and started sucking, gulping down the milk loudly enough that Spinel could hear. She watched in wonder as the baby drank all the milk in the bottle under just a few minutes. She had never seen anyone, aside from Amethyst be so voracious with their meals.

Steven pulled the bottle away and the tiny thing made a noise, Spinel glanced worriedly at him, hoping he heard it, he didn't seem to react. 

"You heard that, right? Is he okay? It didn't hurt him did it?" She was beginning to panic, but Steven simply smiled with a small chuckle. 

"He's just mad he drank it all, he's fine." Steven hadn't babysat a real baby before, but he knew enough from being around onion's mom when onion was just a baby. Onion was still sort of a baby. He also happened to be very...odd. 

Spinel relaxed just a little, though somewhere deep inside she didn't trust Steven with the tiny thing. She wanted it, and he wasn't her, what if he let it get hurt? What if he left it alone?

"I'm gonna pull out some of his toys and stuff, can you call Connie and tell her to cancel our plans? My phone is in my room." Steven said as he sat the baby on the floor and sifted through the bag his Dad had brought. Spinel nodded, and slowly made her way up to his room, keeping an eye as the infant crawled around on the floor. Eventually she came to his room, and focused on searching for his phone. 

Spinel tossed Steven's sheets, finding the phone as it clacked to the ground and picked it up. She wasn't expressly familiar with earth technology but she could manage a phone call. 

"Hey Steven!" Connie answered over the phone. 

"Actually, it's Spinel, uhm, Steven told me to call you to cancel your plans to come by because we have a tiny baby human to take care of for the day." Spinel answered, there was an excited small gasp on the other end. 

"Oh, okay!" Connie replied, "we can do it some other time, you guys have fun!" 

The the call ended.

Spinel set the phone back down on Steven's bed and made her way back down the stairs. Freezing when she saw the baby sitting on the floor, alone.   
She scrambled toward the baby, picking him up and holding him close to her. 

"Steven?!" She cried, frantically pacing while she searched for her friend. He just left him, alone, he didn't even tell her he was going. 

She ran up the stairs toward the balcony, finding Steven in the warp room greenhouse, watering the plants.   
She slammed the wall in frantic anger, startling him from his idle humming. 

"You left him!" She growled, glaring at the boy, her eyes flickering down at his watering can and back up to his face. 

Steven held up his hands in apology and smiled.

"Spinel, it's okay, I just went to water the plants, I was gonna come back-"

"He doesn't KNOW that!" She retorted, tears threatening to fall, Steven almost jumped at the bite in her words, she may have been talking about Dexter but he recognized the hurt in her voice. She was scared.

Steven let out the breath he had been holding.

"I was just upstairs, and I knew you would come back down to check on him, he isn't hurt is he?" He tread carefully, watching closely as Spinel's tensed shoulders began to relax, the baby in her arms was quietly pawing at her face, which made it harder for her to stay upset.   
She inspected the infant, making sure he was completely unharmed.

"No." 

Steven nodded, and took a tentative step toward his friend. Spinel stepped backward, clutching the infant just slightly. He had never seen her so protective of something in his life, but she seemed to coddle this baby like it was her own.   
He didn't want to risk upsetting her by taking it away. 

"Then why don't we head back downstairs and watch him together? I'll make sure to let you know if I have to get up to do something, and I won't leave him alone if you have to do something also." Steven bargained, gesturing for Spinel to take the first steps down the stairs. She nodded, walking silently in front of him and planting herself on the couch.   
Steven followed and sat next to her, glancing every now and again at her while she gently bounced the baby on her lap. 

She was quiet, and smiling, and her eyes were filled with a type of motherly love he wished he had gotten from his own mother. Spinel would be a good mom, he thought, but the thought turned sour at remembering that gems cant have children..not without losing themselves.  
Then all that love she held in her eyes would never be given to any child she had.   
Steven didn't like the idea of losing his friend, or her creating new life and never being able to hold it like she held his little cousin. 

It was hour before Greg returned, Steven was fast asleep on the couch, slightly drooling on the hand that held up his head. Spinel was tired too, but still awake, rocking the now sleeping baby gently in her arms. 

"Did everything go okay?" Greg whispered, drawing the pink gem from her thoughts. Spinel looked up, slowing her rocking until they stilled altogether. 

"He went to sleep." She replied softly, getting up and walking toward the man. She hesitated, not truly desiring to give up the small thing, but knowing she eventually had to. 

"He is so amazing." She murmured, handing Greg the sleeping infant. 

"Yeah, they are.." he glanced at his own son, reminiscing on the years he spent with him as a baby.

"I didn't know humans could be so small and..precious." she whispered, Greg nodded, bending down to pick up the baby bag he had left with them.   
Spinel still stared at the baby, smiling at the soft, warm, pudgy, tiny human.  
Her breath caught in her throat and she felt a sudden and very small aching. 

"I want..one." her words were far to quiet and small for Greg to hear. She didn't care though, so she softly cupped the infants cheek in her hand and planted a small kiss on his forehead, then opened the door for the two of them to depart. 

After they left, Spinel sat back on the couch next to her friend, the tiny soft human was gone, and it left a tiny soft hole in her heart, but there was still Steven.   
Spinel leaned against the sleeping boy, laying her arms over him and taking in his quiet warmth. She could suffice with this, for a while.


End file.
